The death penalty offends the sensibilities of American and European elites who are as far removed from crime as it is possible to be. I suspect that even in those so-called "advenced" countries, people who do suffer from the depredations of criminals and who do not romanticize them as revolutionary outlaws (Wei, for example), tend to favor the death penalty.

Yeah, I bet if you ask the families of those kids slaughtered at that camp how they feel about the "7 year sentence" the murderer can be held for, their sensibilities won't be so "humane".